Rita Mawuena Benissan @ Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town - "One Must Be Seated" Exhibition

Rita Mawuena Benissan

One Must Be Seated

Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town

13 November 2024 - 5 October 2025

RITA MAWUENA BENISSAN

Still from One Must Be Seated, 2024 

Film

Image by Michael "Kwame Pocho" Dakwa 

Courtesy of the artist and Gallery 1957

RITA MAWUENA BENISSAN

Still from One Must Be Seated, 2024 

Film

Image by Michael "Kwame Pocho" Dakwa 

Courtesy of the artist and Gallery 1957

RITA MAWUENA BENISSAN

Still from One Must Be Seated, 2024 

Film

Image by Michael "Kwame Pocho" Dakwa 

Courtesy of the artist and Gallery 1957

RITA MAWUENA BENISSAN

Detail of We Process at Sunrise, 2024 

Embroidery on canvas, 250 x 500cm 

Image: Nii Odzenma 

Courtesy of the artist and Gallery 1957

Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) presents One Must Be Seated, a solo exhibition by Ghanaian-American artist Rita Mawuena Benissan. Deeply rooted within her Ghanaian culture, Benissan’s practice has particular focus on the reimagining of the royal umbrella and stool, symbols of Akan chieftaincy. The exhibition explores the enstoolment of a prospective chief, akin to coronation; a call to take their rightful seat in the stool that has been chosen for them.

Through tapestry, sculpture, photography and video, Benissan’s work highlights and celebrates the rich traditions of Ghanaian culture, with a focus on Asante customs. The royal umbrella has been used since at least the 17th century; it transforms the individual underneath it, attributing significant status. Different sizes, colours, and unique gold totems that crown the umbrella canopy are seen as they move with the court in lively procession. Under the umbrella, the chief and his thoughts are hidden from the heavens above, prohibiting even God from accessing them.

Rita Mawuena Benissan delicately reimagines this cultural object through the use of the archive. As we see in works like The Triumphant King Rules (Ɔhene a wadi Nkonim No Di Tumi) (2023) portraits of past chiefs are embedded within the fabric of the umbrella which is traditionally made with woven Kente cloth and reinterpreted in rich velvet by the artist. Her works are made by the same craftsmen who make the royal umbrellas for the palace in Kumasi, the Asante capital. By intentionally naming these artisans as collaborators, the artist honours the hands that uphold the traditions of the chieftaincy. 

"The exhibition layout simulates the enstoolment tradition with each successive gallery symbolising a stage in the process," explains Beata America, the curator of the exhibition, and Assistant Curator at Zeitz MOCAA. Prompted by the new film, One Must Be Seated (2024), from which the exhibition takes its title, you are invited to be nominated and confronted by the ancestors. "Have you not seen the seat that we made for you? You were made to be seated." Walking through, one passes the palace at dusk, depicted in an intricately woven tapestry, We Process at Sunrise (2024); receives a powerful affirmation of growth and renewal in the green shades of We Give Power to You (2024), another umbrella work; and is ultimately led to the final golden throne. America adds: "It will embrace its chosen, sealing the bond between leader and legacy. When the time comes, will you be open to receive the call?"

Rita Mawuena Benissan: Artist biography

One Must Be Seated forms part of an ongoing series of in-depth, research-based solo exhibitions by Zeitz MOCAA that bring into focus and contextualise the practices of important artists from Africa and the Diaspora, and those whose work focuses on seminal topics in the African present.

This exhibition was curated by Beata America (biography), Assistant Curator at Zeitz MOCAA

Zeitz MOCAA - Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa

S Arm Rd, Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, Cape Town, 8001

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Beata America: Curator Biography - Assistant Curator, Zeitz MOCAA

Beata America: Curator Biography

Assistant Curator, Zeitz MOCAA

BEATA AMERICA

Photo Ramiie G

BEATA AMERICA (b. 1994, South Africa) is an Assistant Curator at Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa. She holds a Diploma in Classical music, from Stellenbosch University (2012 - 2015) and a BA Humanities Degree from Stellenbosch University (2016 - 2018), as well as an Honours in Curatorship through the Centre for Curating the Archive, at the University of Cape Town’s Michaelis School of Fine Art (2019).

During her time at Zeitz MOCAA, America has assisted and conducted research for several exhibitions: Only Sun in the Sky Knows How I Feel – (A Lucid Dream) (2021), Soft Vxnxs (2022), Shooting Down Babylon (2022), Indigo Waves & Other Stories: Re-Navigating the Afrasian Sea and Notions of Diaspora (2022), the Zeitz MOCAA Atelier residency by Igshaan Adams titled Not Working (Working Title) (2022), When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting (2022), Past Disquiet (2023), Seismography of Struggle: Towards a Global History of Critical and Cultural Journals (2023), as well as co-curated Seekers, Seers, Soothsayers (2023) with Tandazani Dhlakama. She has also  assisted and contributed to publications that have accompanied these exhibitions. Most recently, she curated The Other Side of Now, a solo exhibition of Tuấn Andrew Nguyễn, which opened in August 2024 at Zeitz MOCAA. 

Beata America curated Rita Mawuena Benissan: One Must Be Seated, which is currently on view at Zeitz MOCAA (13 November 2024 - 5 October 2025)

In 2020, she co-founded the art wine collective Processus with partner Megan van der Merwe, a curator and winemaker collaboration which explores wine as an ephemeral art object and the artistic processes therein.

Biography courtesy of Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town

Zeitz MOCAA - Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa

S Arm Rd, Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, Cape Town, 8001

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Senzeni Marasela @ Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town - Waiting for Gebane

Senzeni Marasela

Waiting for Gebane

Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA), Cape Town

Through 2 May 2021

Zeitz MOCAA presents a long-due institutional focus on the work of SENZENI MARSALA.  

Senzeni Marasela, who was born in Thokoza, South Africa, is an artist whose mediums include photography, video, prints, textiles and embroidery. Her work deals with history, memory, and personal narrative, and emphasises historical gaps and overlooked female figures. 

Titled Waiting for Gebane, the exhibition is an overview of the artist’s practice, and centres around Theodorah Mthetyane, Senzeni Marasela’s fictional alter ego who was inspired by, and is a femage to her mother. 

Theodorah’s story begins when her husband, Gebane, leaves her behind in a village in the Eastern Cape when he sets off to work in faraway Johannesburg. After many years of waiting, Theodorah leaves the village for the sprawling city streets to look for her partner. In a series of photographs and textile works, Marasela wears her mother’s yellow ishweshwe dress to depict Theodorah’s search for Gebane while simultaneously honouring her mother. 

In a later performance of the character that blurs the lines between performativity and everyday life, Marasela wore for six consecutive years exclusively the same red ishweshwe dress. Through Theodorah, the artist sought to explore the conditions of waiting and the stories of black women in South Africa, to make visible their subjectivities.  

In speaking about the performance, Senzeni Marasela says: “The idea of having multiple dresses throughout my performance work for Waiting for Gebane, was about an attempt to live or to walk in many shoes. Shoes that were sometimes smaller than mine, bigger than mine, wider than mine.  

“But it was an attempt to multiply this experience, this heavy experience of being a black woman on the continent. And when I do re-enact, I re-enact with the aim of changing, of altering, changing until I find a comfortable position to be in as an artist, as a person.” 

Koyo Kouoh, Executive Director and Chief Curator at Zeitz MOCAA says: “It is an important moment for us at Zeitz MOCAA to celebrate this artist, in presenting her first museum solo exhibition. That it is a first, is almost unfathomable – Marasela has been working consistently and steadfastly on one of the most compelling bodies of work on the African continent by a female artist. 

“What fascinates me about Marasela’s work is that it addresses and carries out, by way of re-enactments, a characteristic feature of contemporary life in Africa: waiting. She adds complexity to the act of waiting and translates it into an affecting visual language that is charged with political and historical gravity.”  

ABOUT SENZENI MARSALA

Born in 1977 in Thokoza, South Africa, Senzeni Marasela is a cross-disciplinary artist who explores photography, video, prints, and mixed-medium installations involving textiles and embroidery.

Her work deals with history, memory, and personal narrative, emphasising historical gaps and overlooked figures. She graduated from the University of Witswatersrand, Johannesburg, in 1998, and shortly thereafter completed a residency at the South African National Gallery, culminating in her work for the Gallery’s Fresh exhibition series.

Her work has been widely exhibited in South Africa, Europe and the US. Senzeni Marasela’s art features in prominent local and international collections, including MoMA, New York. She was recently part of the 56th Johannesburg Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2015). Solo exhibitions include: Waiting for Gebane: Dolly Parton (2018) Toffee Gallery, Darling, South Africa, Sarah, Theodorah and Senzeni in Johannesburg (2011) Art on Paper, Johannesburg, Beyond Booty: Covering Sarah Baartman and other Tales (2010) Axis Gallery, New York, “Oh my God you look like shit. Who let you out of the house looking like that?”, a solo performance, Sternersen Museum, Oslo, JONGA – Look at Me! A Museum of Women, Dolls and Memories, Devon Arts residency, Devon, Three Women, Three Voices (2004) Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, Fresh (2000) South African National Gallery, Cape Town.

Senzeni Marasela’s practice has been contextualised in the following publications, Jonga: Look at Me: Museum of Women, Dolls and Memories (2009), Unbounded (2009), South African Art Now (2009), Darkroom (2009), 10 Years, 100 Artists (2005), History After Apartheid (2003), FRESH (2001).

She lives and works in Soweto, South Africa.

Curators: Koyo Kouoh, Storm Janse Van Rensburg, Tammy Langtry

ZEITZ MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART AFRICA - ZEITZ MOCAA

Silo District, South Arm Road, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town 8002

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Contemporary art in Zimbabwe @ Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town - Five Bhobh: Painting at the end of an Era

Five Bhobh: Painting at the end of an Era

Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA), Cape Town

12 September 2018 – 31 March 2019

The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) presents an exhibition of contemporary painting from Zimbabwe. The show features 28 artists from Zimbabwe who are creating works during a time of transition into an alternative dispensation.

“Present-day painting comes at a heightened socio-political moment. Recent events in Zimbabwe have left many asking, “Where are we going? What comes next? How do we get there?” For some the journey may not be a comfortable one. It may require coming back, picking up where one left off, or unravelling forgotten layers of the past. Using various tones and gestures, the artists in this exhibition highlight the pressing questions emanating from a moment of great angst. They interrogate present-day circumstances, reimagine manifold futures, and recount entangled histories,” explains curator Tandazani Dhlakama.

The name of the show, Five Bhobh (pronounced five bob), was inspired by the average fare needed to journey locally by kombi (minibus) in Zimbabwe.

“As soon as you are crammed in, four in each row, the conductor will announce “Five bhobh!” or “Two pa dollar!” You may hear the tinkling of coins being collected and observe lower denominations of notes unfolding from sweaty palms, pockets and blouses. Monotonously shoulders in the front rows are tapped as money is moved forward and change is negotiated until it reaches the hwindi (bus conductor). By then the engine is roaring and the driver is negotiating his exit from the bustling terminus. Passengers may begin to converse. Matters of everyday life in Zimbabwe are discussed always in codes with a diverse array of figurative language. They have paid their dues, invested in the future, and are waiting expectantly to move forward,” Tandazani Dhlakama continues.

The participating artists in this exhibition mark the end of an era, offering foresights into an alternative dispensation. The metaphor of the kombi is like the nation of Zimbabwe; the artists its passengers, who engage in social commentary through calculated gesture.

Painting has a long history in Zimbabwe and this exhibition provides a synopsis of the medium as it applies to the country today, challenging traditional ideas around how painting is defined. In some cases, the painting is stripped to its most basic form, exposing threadbare canvas. At other times, paint is mixed into substances such as silicone, synthetic hair, and wood. For decades artists from this country have manipulated this medium as a way of subtly articulating complex issues, speaking in intricate, allegorical codes.

In the lead up to the show, two Zimbabwean artists - Kufa Makwarara and Richard Mudariki, both residents of Cape Town – occupy half of the museum’s third floor as resident artists. The museum believes it is important to offer artists space to allow them the freedom to make significant works for the exhibition and beyond.

Exhibition Curator: Tandazani Dhlakama

Exhibiting artists:

• Admire Kamudzengere

• Anthony Bumhira

• Berry Bickle

• Charles Bhebhe

• Cosmos Shiridzinomwa

• Duncan Wylie

• Gareth Nyandoro

• Gillian Rosselli

• Greg Shaw

• Helen Teede

• Isheanesu Dondo

• Janet Sirigwani Nyabeze

• John Kotze

• Kreshia Mukwazhi

• Kufa Makwarara

• Mostaff Muchawaya

• Percy Manyonga

• Portia Zvavahera

• Rashid Jogee

• Richard Mudariki

• Shalom Kufakwatenzi

• Simon Back

• Tatenda Magaisa

• Tawanda Reza

• Thakor Patel

• Troy Makaza

• Wallen Mapondera

• Kudzanai Violet Hwami

ZEITZ MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART AFRICA - ZEITZ MOCAA

Silo District, South Arm Road, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town 8002

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